On the 78th anniversary of our independence, one would expect the State to reaffirm the freedoms hard-won in 1947. Instead, in Thane’s Kalyan-Dombivli region, the civic body has chosen to mark the occasion by imposing a 24-hour ban on meat sales. The order covering slaughterhouses and licensed butcher shops from midnight of August 14 to midnight of August 15 is more than just an administrative notice. It is a symbolic intrusion into the citizen’s plate and by extension into the domain of personal liberty.
India’s secular Constitution recognises no hierarchy of lifestyles. The right to food choice flows directly from Article 21’s guarantee of personal liberty, reinforced by the freedom of expression and religion under Articles 19 and 25. In a country of countless diets, faiths, and customs, the State’s role is to protect this diversity, not to police it. When a civic body unilaterally dictates what can be sold and consumed, and does so in the name of tradition or convenience, it crosses a line. Such actions set a precedent that weakens the foundation of secular governance.
The irony here is glaring. Independence Day commemorates the end of arbitrary colonial diktats. Yet, on its eve, an elected administration has resorted to an arbitrary diktat of its own. If freedom from imperial rule meant anything, it was this: the State must not dictate to the citizen what to eat or what to believe. Nor should it decide how people must live.
Supporters of the ban may claim it is harmless — a symbolic observance that has existed for years. But in an age where personal freedoms are increasingly subject to “administrative tradition,” such measures risk normalising cultural coercion. The Constitution does not allow freedom to be subject to the convenience of the majority or the sentiment of the day.
Independence Day should be a festival of pluralism. To curtail choice on this day is not just poor policy; it is a profound misunderstanding of what the tricolour stands for. If the citizen’s plate can be dictated by a municipal notice, then the freedom we celebrate on August 15 is reduced to a ceremonial illusion.
